Art fest block party Saturday

May 15, 2014

The next chapter in the blossoming All Walks of Art Festivals is expected to fill a two-block stretch of Southeast 47th Terrace for the enjoyment of local families on Saturday.

The festival, located between Vincennes Boulevard and Southeast 10th Place, runs from 4 to 11 p.m. Circus Arts United founder Brian Weaver expects 100 local artists and street performers to display their work for all to enjoy. There's also a full lineup of food and beverage vendors. For this weekend's event Weaver has partnered with Caleb's Crusade, a local charity, to raise funds to help local families battling childhood cancer.

"We ask everyone to make a donation, but it is not required," said Weaver. Every little bit helps. We want to help a different local charity at all of our festivals."

Circus Arts held its first festival in April 2013 at the Paradise Tiki Hut. Within months, it had outgrown the space and moved to the Italian American Club. When it outgrew that facility Weaver took the festival to the streets for its first outdoor event last February.

"We intend to rotate our festivals every two months opposite Bike Nights," said Weaver. "In February we were going against the Edison parade and had about half the space we'll have this weekend."

Weaver also has gone independent from Dixie Roadhouse which assisted with the setup of recent festivals in securing permits and liquor licenses.

"We're completely independent now," said Weaver. "Our festivals are different from Fort Myers because of the circus performance arts."

The festival has added a "battle of the unplugged" where 10 local bands, disconnected from electricity, will perform. Attendees will be given a ticket which they will use to judge the bands, putting their ticket in a bucket with the bands name. The band with the most tickets wins a prize.

"We've handed out over 10,000 flyers and posters and a radio station has given us advertising time to get the word out," said Weaver. "We'd also like for people to visit the Circus Arts United page on Facebook and invite all their friends to 'like' us."

Weaver said he is expecting up to 7,000 people to attend.

"With the help of the community we'd like to bring a bit of art culture to Cape Coral," said Weaver. "We'd like to get some art installations in downtown Cape that we think would help bring more businesses and homebuyers to the area while establishing another arts event for families to enjoy."